Thursday, October 04, 2007

Why I Love Hip-Hop: Foreign Exchange - Sincere

Hip-hop has been international for a long time. Thanks to the Internet, it has only become more so. The Foreign Exchange is a collaboration between Phonte Coleman (1/2 of Little Brother) of North Carolina and Nicolay of the Netherlands.

Yes, the Netherlands.

This doesn't sound like Little Brother in style and in substance. Phonte even sings on some tracks of their initial CD, Connected, which has this song, "Sincere". A new Foreign Exchange CD is expected soon called "Leave it All Behind".

Hip-hop at its' best can bridge language and cultural barriers...like any good music can.

2 comments:

thanks for providing this fresh perspective on hip-hop. i first heard of little brother in the fall of 2002 when they were opening for del the funkee homosapien of hieroglyphics fame at the grog. two guys in line from canton were high on lil brother and def gave me the low down....i remember lil brother being respectful of the history of the 'genre' while actively commenting on the current culture - good beats and lyrical twists to boot! i also really like what they've done with mick boogie here in cleveland - it's certainly elevated the local scene by a leap or two. i first heard of nicolay on the awesome nic's groove from 'the listening' LPthanks again for making these connections. hip-hop, i guess a lot like jazz before it, is a music that connects in really beautiful ways...